CLAPTON, SURFDOG TIE UP

Encinitas record company will distribute guitar legend’s next album

The only musician to be inducted three times into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, guitar legend Eric Clapton has recorded for some of the world’s biggest record companies since launching his solo career in 1970. But for his new album — “Old Sock,” due out March 12 — he has teamed up with Surfdog Records of Encinitas to exclusively distribute the album in the United States and Canada.

“Old Sock” features guest appearances by Paul McCartney, Steve Winwood and Valley Center singer-songwriter J.J. Cale, a longtime musical hero of Clapton’s. It will be the first album to be released on Clapton’s new Bushbranch Records label — and his first to be distributed by Surfdog.

“It’s absolutely a coup for Surfdog,” said Gary Bongiovanni, the publisher of Pollstar, the concert industry’s largest weekly magazine.

“You have an extremely well-established artist putting his faith and confidence into a small boutique company. Obviously, Clapton and his people did due diligence and feel comfortable Surfdog is up to the job.”

Since being launched in 1993, Surfdog has released more than 100 albums by such diverse bands and solo artists as The Stray Cats, Joss Stone, Glen Campbell, Jamaican reggae singer Pato Banton and such San Diego bands as The Burning of Rome, B-Side Players and Slightly Stoopid. But Clapton is, without a doubt, the most high-profile musician to be affiliated with Surfdog in the label’s 20-year history.

Surfdog Records was founded by Dave Kaplan as an outgrowth of his Dave Kaplan Management company. The record label and his management company have since been augmented by Surfdog Music Publishing & Licensing, Surfdog Entertainment Marketing, Surfdog Merchandising and Surfdog’s Java Hut, a “smoothies, coffee and grub” place on Highway 101 in Encinitas.

Phoenix native Kaplan, 53, moved here from Los Angeles with his wife and the first of their two sons in 1995, two years after he launched Surfdog in a Venice Beach garage. He prides himself on his long-term relationships with Surfdog artists, most notably former Stray Cats leader Brian Setzer, who Kaplan began managing 21 years ago and who has since released 17 albums on Surfdog.

“We’re tenacious and ferocious when we believe in something, and we do it with good old-fashioned hard work,” said Kaplan, whose 12-member staff takes surf breaks on an almost daily basis. “We try to be laser-focused for the artists we work with.”

Surfdog was not the only independent distribution company to court Clapton, whose office manager and attorney, Michael Eaton, has known Kaplan for 30 years. But they made the winning pitch.

“It’s an honor because it’s not often you get a chance to work with rock ’n’ roll royalty,” Kaplan said. “My whole mission now is to make sure they know they made the right decision and chose the place that would do the best job for Eric and this album. I strongly intend to show them they made the right decision. It’s entirely up to Surfdog to (ensure) that any artist we work with wouldn’t want to go anywhere else.”